I've got it downloading so we'll see how this goes. Is there a particular server or something most Goodjers are on?

This. I finished downloading and now....I assume I should try to find people on US servers, so I'm going there.
Also, I totally skimmed to here, so if there's pages I should read before this...enable me to unskim myself.

I saw on Steam you were playing last night but didn't know how to contact you in-game. I'm account "[GWJ]tanstaafl" with character "Shalalm Baskur" (not sure which one you need to contact someone with).

I haven't gotten too far; after downloading from Steam it looked like the patcher downloaded the entire game again and my Internet is crappy enough that it took forever. And I'll confess to doing the "Hey! It's Nolan and the chosen one Irisa!" thing in the intro. Won't be on tonight (having to go to a wedding) but will probably hop on again later this weekend.

Not sure if anyone is still interested in this game, but it is pretty good. The show is surprisingly good and engaging. I say this as someone who liked Falling Skies and Firefly. I recently started playing this on PC and have enjoyed it.

I just started playing this again last week and finished up all of the DLC missions I'd missed. Apparently I'd bought the season pass early on so that was nice.

One of the episodes was downright lazy and only had a couple of tiny missions that took me less than 15 minutes to complete. Maybe there was other stuff included with that pack, I dunno. The Gunslinger Trials was basically just a bunch of lightly storied content that took place in the co-op and PvP maps. I guess they figured some people will never try out the PvP so might as well let them see the maps that way.

I don't think I really finished the Castathan pack missions as I stopped when I got to some arena and I never got the charge blade. Now if I can just remember where that place was I'll go back and see if I can grab one.

It seems like the main points of the episode packs are to just to work in weapons with a new twist or some other little item. Since I'd last played they had changed grenades to be limited ammo and added the spikes and injectables. A couple of the new arena missions were the hardest fights I've ever had in this game and it actually took me several tries to get past them. Never really had that kind of difficulty before so that was a nice change. I have a feeling I was supposed to group up for those arenas since all of the youtube videos of those fights showed groups of 4 but since they weren't on my groupfinder list I just went in solo. Eh, either way, was a much more satisfying experience learning the fight and improving my approach as compared to most other missions in the game.

The new DLC came out yesterday and holy mackerel did they change combat. I have to think they'll be doing an emergency balance patch unless they truly intended to change the entire nature of the game.

Players and enemies now have armor. The higher end enemies can have up to 4 layers of armor which reduces the damage they take by 40% and this is in addition to their normal shields.
The damage on almost all of my weapons was increased significantly, some as much as doubled. The shields I had in my inventory were also increased with one increasing it's capacity by 400%.
They've also changed it so that any grenades or stims that drop will refill whatever type of that item you currently have equipped.
Oh, they also changed the look of some of the enemies.

The big change however comes in how much damage it takes to kill an enemy. Previously, with my high end bolt action sniper rifle I could kill most regular enemies with one headshot. I actually liked that since I hate insane bullet sponges in shooter. Now I'm looking at 2 or 3 for trash mobs and maybe a half dozen or more for heavier guys. I'll occasionally get a one-shot kill but it's rare. Most of the baby bugs will go down in one aimed shot but sometimes it even takes 2 on them.

The toughest fight I ran into was an area event where you have bugs attacking a farmhouse. Previously I could solo it without dying if I had the right weapons, was very careful and extremely mobile. Last night the fight seemed to take forever and it ended up with me and 2 other players on top of an outbuilding firing down at groups of large bugs until we ran out of ammo on every type of weapon we had leaving us firing our BMG's at them. It was absolutely ridiculous. Even hitting their weak spots barely caused their health bars to move. Damage types are much more important now and I was cycling between electric, fire, corrosive, etc just trying to find something that would make a dent.

Some in chat were theorizing that the devs want to force people to group up now and that the days of being able to solo most of the content is gone. It'll be interesting to see if they keep the new damage and resistance levels because it definitely changes how you play the game.

The scaling done on the NPCs has been backed down. Combat is now doable without glitching or rez zerging.

I've been running solo on the trial, and after the hotfix to the npc scaling, having a decent time of it. There have been a lot of people playing in prime time, enough so that some of the open world events get overrun by players (not helping that idiots are spamming smoke grenades, sigh, humanity). Do the free trial, it will give you enough of a clue to decide if you want to spend the cash on it.

Of the DLC, the only one that leaps out as 'you really should consider getting this' is the Arkbreaker (second DLC released), because the nice loot that drops from the WarMaster requires you to own the DLC. The Arktech DLC (last one).

June 4th, Defiance goes F2P, timed to coincide with the second season of the show. So, you might want to think about spending the $10 to buy the basic edition, now, while you can. The DLC will not be free, you will still need to buy it after the base game goes F2P.

In anticipation of the Division and the lack of Destiny PC port, I revisited this game.
It is not bad really. I think the key to any shooter is whether you can find a gun you gel with in the first half hour or can it hold your interest long enough until you find that gun.
I really like the shotguns and I was about to feel really luke warm about this game until I found one. Then I found an SMG and an automatic pistol with elemental effects I really liked.
It looks like they made upgrading or attaching mods much more difficult than I remember at launch. But so far the guns have maintained their usefulness for the first I want to say 10 "levels" or skill points really.
As far as molded hair models go, I find they have the best and really unique I have seen. Most games have: bald, the bob, the shoulder length bob, the bob with hair brushed back on the right, the bob with hair brushed back on the left, the long pony tail, the mid pony tail, the stubby pony tail, the pig tails, various types of buns and you get the picture.
Defiance doesn't have an overwhelming number of hair styles but they weave in braids in a stylish and unique fashion, especially for the alien race(s).